ABOUT THIS EPISODE
A shopper asks an AI a question and gets back a full basket with a checkout button. If your product and inventory data is wrong, that basket never includes you. This week we look at five stories on AI shopping, plus 13 fast headlines from across retail and hospitality.
## Timestamps
- **0:00** Cold open: the AI-built basket
- **0:25** Webinar alert: *Beyond the Shrink*, IHL's 2026 Global Retail Loss Study, Oct 20 at 11 a.m. ET (theft is just 25% of total retail loss)
- **1:07** This week's theme: AI as your new storefront
- **1:25** Kroger's AI shopping assistant and why 46% of retailers struggle with reliable fulfillment
- **2:12** Newegg and The RealReal team up with Google on in-AI checkout and shopping agents
- **2:54** L'Oreal: AI guides nearly 20% of marketing investment
- **3:39** Sbarro moves nearly 300 restaurants to NCR Voyix Aloha Next POS
- **4:20** Eataly connects Cleo EDI with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and builds an inventory AI agent
- **5:05** Five stories, one message: fix the data first
- **5:12** Lightning round: 13 top stories
- **5:18** IHL launches the Hiring Demand Index (942,937 stores tracked)
- **5:37** Castle Resorts & Hotels: revenue per session up 41%
- **5:45** Walmart opens its fifth next-gen fulfillment center
- **5:55** Best Buy Ads adds LG connected TV inventory
- **6:06** Angulas Aguinaga trusts 80% of RELEX forecasts untouched
- **6:14** Hanshow and Kenty Adria roll out 3.1 million ESLs
- **6:24** Instacart and SkipTheDishes join forces in Canada
- **6:35** Sprouts adds Shipt same-day delivery
- **6:46** CEVA, Zalando and Sereact launch returns-sorting robots
- **6:57** Asda adds Rokt at checkout
- **7:07** Sur la Table delivers through Uber Eats
- **7:17** On cuts cloud migrations from three months to two weeks
- **7:26** Red Roof app revenue up 44% on HotelKey PMS
- **7:36** The question to take with you: would your data give an AI the right answer?
## Key IHL Data Points
- 46% of retailers struggle with reliable fulfillment; sales laggards are 22x more likely to report trouble getting real-time inventory data
- Personalizing the customer experience is the top tech priority for 58% of retailers, leading 7 of the last 9 years
- 40% prioritize connecting disparate systems; 38% are focused on data cleaning, training and storage
- 42% cite refreshing POS infrastructure as a priority; 37% plan a POS hardware decision, up 41% from last year
## Links
- Register for *Beyond the Shrink*:https://www.ihlservices.com/webinar-beyond-shrink-total-retail-loss/
- 40 more stories and free white papers: https://www.ihlservices.com
